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Gioia Bruno
Gioia Bruno (born Carmen Gioia Bruno June 11, 1963, sometimes professionally credited as just Gioia) is a popular music singer, most noted as a member of the vocal group Exposé. Early life and career Bruno was born in Bari, Italy. She was raised in New Jersey. At the age of 16, she started singing in night clubs with bands, after being encouraged by her friend David Fields to make serious efforts with her musical career. After high school, she decided to move to Florida. When performing at the Gee Wiz nightclub in Miami, Florida, she was approached by Frank Diaz, of Pantera Group Enterprises, who offered her a role in Exposé. After over nine months of recruitment attempts, Bruno finally accepted the offer and ended up joining the group. Bruno sang lead on the Exposé singles Let Me Be The One, What You Don't Know, and Tell Me Why. She toured with the group between 1986 and 1990, except for a short period where she was replaced by Julie Albers, while on maternity leave. In 1990, a benign throat tumor ended up putting her singing career on hiatus. An operation was considered but rejected by Bruno since it could possibly permanently damage her vocal cords. She was forced to cut short the "What You Don't Know" tour in August 1990, just before Exposé was slated to perform at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She left Exposé in 1991, though fans in the Exposé fan club were not told until mid-1992, shortly before the release of the next album. Bruno co-founded the West Broward Performing Arts Academy in Florida. She was unable to sing for a few years and even had to keep regular talking to a minimum. Finally, after about 4–5 years of healing, vocal retraining and development, she fully regained her voice, resumed her singing career. Solo Projects Bruno's return to the charts was a release by Mayday Records. She did a demo track for them called Make That Move, which was released to dance clubs under the pseudonym G-Spot and was sold via the Exposé Fan Club, marketed directly to members in 1995. The single ended up reaching 21 on the Top Dance-Club Play charts of Billboard. A remix version was released and sold via the fan-club as well. For a few years, Bruno worked in the band Wet, with her friend John Thomas, performing lead vocals and co-writing several songs with the group. This group performed in local venues in Florida. She performed in the band for a few years, then left to work on a solo career. She worked on writing songs with Ritchie Supa. She then worked with Richie Sambora, performing both background vocals and percussion for his solo tour. Bruno's first solo single was "Free To Be", which topped charts across the U.S. and Canada. Her second single, "From The Inside", was prominently featured on the prime time cable series Queer As Folk. Her third solo single, "Wrecking My Nerves", produced by Chris Cox, saw similar success in the dance music community. In 2004, her first album, Expose This, was released on Koch Records. The album's two singles, "Be Mine" and "Incredible", made the Top 50 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts. Bruno has also done projects with others. Bruno also co-produced and sang lead vocals on Will To Power's 2005 remake of "Dreamin' (again)" which hit the #1 position on most US dance charts and dance radio stations, including WMPH where it remained #1 for many months. She has also worked on solo music projects independently, including "Why Did You Call Me Again", co-produced by original Exposé producer Lewis Martinee, and a remake of the Kenny Loggins song "This is it", produced by Anila R. Monterrey and Eric Nunez. In September 2006, Bruno temporarily stopped touring as a solo artisthttp://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_code=Cu&article_code=2613 Innewsweekly.com Retrieved on 05-12-07 and reunited with Exposé with members Curless and Jurado after a 15 year hiatus. In the fall of 2007, she began devoting time to her solo career again while still touring with Exposé. A remake of Jackie Wilson's 1967 hit Higher and Higher on Harlequin Records has been released and is being marketed to dance clubs. Relationships Bruno has been married and divorced two times. She has a daughter from her first marriage to Joseph Pastore, Brianna Pastore, who was born in 1988. In January 2006, Gioia acknowledged she is bisexual on the Q Television Network show Brunch.http://www.planetout.com/video/article.html?id=1791&navpath=/topics/video/ Planetout.com Retrieved on 05-12-07http://afterellen.com/People/2006/10/bruno.html Afterellen.com Retrieved on 05-12-07 Discography Albums * Shelter (Lead Vocals, by the group Wet) 1996 * Expose This 2004 Singles References External links *Gioia's Official Web Site *Gioia's MySpace Entry * Official Press Release Stating Return of Exposé -- Includes downloadable Podcast featuring Bruno * Part one of Gioia Bruno Interview with Lydia Marcus of AfterEllen * Part two of Gioia Bruno Interview with Lydia Marcus of AfterEllen *Part one of Gioia Bruno Interview with John R. Troy of Exposé Epistle *Part two of Gioia Bruno Interview with John R. Troy of Exposé Epistle Category:Bisexual musicians Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States Category:People from New Jersey Category:1963 birthsCategory:Living people